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Kyle Lowry to take part in three-point shooting contest

The NBA announced its participants in this year’s all-star weekend slam dunk contest on Thursday night and Toronto will be involved in location only.

The Timberwolves' Zach LaVine, here at last year's all-star dunk contest, will be on hand in Toronto to defend his title. (Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

By Chris O’LearySports Reporter

Thu., Feb. 4, 2016

PORTLAND—At some point last week, Kyle Lowry looked ahead to all-star Saturday night and noticed something — his team was missing.

He and DeMar DeRozan are taking part in Sunday’s all-star game and Toronto is, of course, playing host to the entire weekend. But all-star Saturday night has a Christmas Eve-esque level of anticipation to it and the Raptors’ point guard wanted to give his team’s fans something to cheer about.

So when the league asked if he was interested in taking part in the three-point contest, Lowry didn’t hesitate.

“I’ve got to do something,” Lowry said just ahead of Thursday’s tipoff against the Portland Trail Blazers. “Because Terrence (Ross) punked out and DeMar punked out.”

DeRozan, who took part in the 2010 and 2011 contests, said he gave it some serious thought this year but wasn’t physically up to doing it a third time.

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Ross won the dunk contest at the 2013 all-star weekend when he was a rookie but had no interest in taking part again.

The three-point contest, as Lowry pointed out, isn’t as physically taxing as a night of dunk attempts can be. When former Blazer Clyde Drexler took part in the 1989 dunk contest, he complained his wrists were swollen afterward.

Lowry won’t have to worry about that as he works the five stations around the three-point line. Going up against defending champion Stephen Curry and his backcourt partner Klay Thompson, along with five other sharpshooters including former Raptor Chris Bosh, Lowry said he’d be relaxed and having fun.

“I just wanted to do something to make sure we’ve got representation at all-star Saturday night for our fans,” he said. “It’s an honour to be shooting against some of the best shooters in the NBA. I’m competitive enough to know I want to try and win but I’m shooting against some hellafied shooters, so I’m going to have fun.”

“I thought about it and it took me until about the deadline last week,” DeRozan said of the dunk contest. Both he and Ross said they would have liked to have seen Norman Powell in the contest.

“They should have let Norm (Powell) do it,” DeRozan said. “I think he would have done a few things.”

“I really wanted to see that. Norm has a lot of bounce,” added Ross. ”He should probably push harder (to take part) next year but it’d have been nice to see him this year.”

While Powell is a high-flier, he just got his first start of the season on Tuesday in Phoenix and is easily under the league’s radar for these things.

“It was going to be fun,” said Powell, who was disappointed to not be selected. “I don’t think there was a better situation than being in Toronto, rookie, coming in and trying to give the fans something to look forward to, so definitely disappointed. But there’s always next year.”

DeRozan said he’d like to see the dunk contest get back to pulling some high-profile players into it. LeBron James has never taken part in the all-star tradition and Toronto native and T-Wolves guard Andrew Wiggins has refused to take part, two years into his promising career.

“I think it’d be great for the fans if you look up and see all-stars doing it,” he said.

“I think that’d be entertaining. That’s how it was back in the day, to see guys compete who are the main players on their team. Not to take anything away from the guys (currently in it), but I think it’d be a little better if (all-stars) would.”

Lowry, who had a nice dunk in his all-star debut last year, joked he could have brought something to this year’s contest.

“I was thinking about going out there and throwing a 360 windmill off the backboard, but my back kind of hurts,” he said coolly. “So I said no to that.”

Meanwhile, James Johnson won’t be hurried back into the Raptors’ lineup.

The forward sprained his ankle on Monday night in Denver and has been on crutches all week. He’s now wearing a walking cast.

“It’s just a tough sprain,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of the injury. “Don’t know what the timetable is going to be. He’s working his behind off to get back. We need him to get back, but (it’s) nothing major, nothing catastrophic. A tough sprain.”

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